Red Sox, Yankees ready to rumble

By Bill Koch ProvidenceJournal

Tuesday

Apr 10, 2018 at 12:15 AM

The first of 19 matchups against the Yankees arrives with Boston enjoying a historic start and New York’s prized offseason acquisition hearing it from the boo birds in his new home. Fenway Park is the setting for the opening skirmish between the two teams tipped by just about all of the game’s followers to battle for supremacy in the American League East.

BOSTON — With all due respect to Tampa Bay and Miami, it’s reasonable to think most Red Sox fans had Tuesday circled on their calendars as the real beginning of the 2018 season.

The first of 19 matchups against the Yankees arrives with Boston enjoying a historic start and New York’s prized offseason acquisition hearing it from the boo birds in his new home. Fenway Park is the setting for the opening skirmish between the two teams tipped by just about all of the game’s followers to battle for supremacy in the American League East.

Two straight playoff flameouts and a combined 1-6 record against the Indians and Astros in the American League Division Series make it easy to forget the Red Sox are the two-time division champions. Boston has its gaze fixed on loftier goals, and that starts with dispatching what will almost certainly its chief competition throughout the regular season. The Red Sox are 8-1 for the first time in 118 years after Sunday’s improbable 8-7 rally past the Rays, one that featured six runs on six straight two-out hits in the bottom of the eighth inning.

To Benintendi’s point, there is a different feel around Boston’s club in the early going. The Red Sox are 5-0 when the opponent scores first and have won a pair of games in extra innings. Eduardo Rodriguez was the first starting pitcher to allow more than three earned runs in an outing, a number only reached by Rick Porcello after he was sent back out for the eighth with an eight-run lead on Saturday.

“We’ve been playing good baseball for a month now,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “I know spring training doesn’t count. I know the record doesn’t count. But we were playing good baseball.”

Are some of these trends unsustainable? Certainly, especially considering the season to date has been played against two teams who lost by a combined 30-4 on Saturday. The Rays are on an eight-game losing streak and looked destined for the division’s basement. The Marlins have stripped their roster almost to the bone in the name of rebuilding under new chief executive officer Derek Jeter.

One of the first orders of business for the former Yankees’ shortstop was to deal one of his Miami stars to his old club. Slugging outfielder Giancarlo Stanton and the remaining 10 years of his groundbreaking $325-million contract was shipped to New York in the offseason, settling into a lineup that can now appropriately be called the Bronx Bombers again. Stanton is finding life in the spotlight’s glare a little more difficult, finishing his first home stand 3-for-28 with 16 strikeouts.

Like Boston with shortstop Xander Bogaerts (left ankle), the Yankees have also been hit early by the injury bug. Pitcher C.C. Sabathia (right hip strain) and third baseman Brandon Drury (severe migraines) are the latest to be placed on the disabled list, joining first baseman Greg Bird (right ankle surgery) and outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury (oblique strain), Clint Frazier (concussion), Aaron Hicks (right intercostal strain) and Billy McKinney (left shoulder sprain). The Red Sox were hoping Bogaerts could avoid a similar fate after suffering his injury sliding for an errant throw late in Sunday’s thriller.

Don’t expect sympathy for either team from their rivals, and certainly not from the opposing fan base. Both clubs figure to have the resources to weather most storms, and even a diminished version of each roster makes for great theatre when they meet on the diamond. The first time arrives at 7:10 p.m. on Tuesday, with Boston left-hander Chris Sale and New York right-hander Luis Severino taking the ball in a duel of aces.

“I don’t know if that group needs confidence down there,” Cora said of his players. “They said it yesterday – they don’t even know what’s going on. They’re just playing baseball and having fun with it.”

Bogaerts on DL: The Red Sox on Monday placed Bogaerts on the 10-day disabled list after he suffered a small crack in his left ankle in Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay, the team announced.

The team said Bogaerts, 25, underwent an X-ray Sunday and an MRI on Monday at Massachusetts General Hospital, revealing a small crack in the talus bone in his left ankle. The injury is non-displaced and will not require surgery. Bogaerts, who was placed on the DL Monday, is expected to miss approximately 10-14 days. He injured his ankle sliding into the Rays dugout going after his own badly thrown ball as part a relay play.

The injury means Boston will play the Yankees and Orioles this week without its best hitter of the young season. Through nine games, Bogaerts has a team-leading .368 batting average and has flashed the power he seemed to lack last season — hitting two home runs, driving in nine and boasting a .711 slugging percentage. Next week, the team leaves for a West Coast trip against the Angels and Athletics. If Bogaerts does miss 14 days, he'd be in line to return for the April 24-26 trip to Toronto.

Tzu-Wei Lin will be called up from Triple-A Pawtucket on Tuesday to fill the roster spot, the Red Sox said.

Also, left-handed pitcher Drew Pomeranz (left forearm flexor strain), who began his injury rehabilitation assignment at Pawtucket on Sunday, will have his assignment transferred to Double-A Portland and will make a start on Friday against Binghamton at 6 p.m.

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